The Elder Scrolls: Online

Concept Art of a desert
The Elder Scrolls: Online
First view of the upcoming MMOG in the Elder Scrolls universe
fter Bethesda Softworks'
astonishing announcement of
the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
another subsidiary of ZeniMax
Media, called the ZeniMax
Online Studios, surprisingly
revealed that they are
currently working on the
design of the next Elder Scrolls
game: the long awaited Multi
Massive Online Role Playing
Game The Elder Scrolls: Online.
roud to give the fans of their
very successful RPG Series a
game to look forward to,
ZeniMax Studios invited us to
take a first glance at an early
version of their very first
online game. After the opening
of a customer support office
for MMOG in Ireland in March
this revelation was highly
anticipated.
Taking
into
account the overwhelming
performance of recent Elder
Scrolls titles on the XBox 360
and Playsation 3 consoles, TES:
Online will also be designed as
a multiplatform game being
one of the first online games
10 OAG 04/11
ever
to
integrate
such
features. The same game
account can be used on every
version of the game. Also
transfers of characters will be
no problem.
adically is the only word for
the new game's planned game
control. We were told that the
whole
acting
shall
be
completely controllable by
movement
detection
via
Microsoft's Kinect or Sony's
Move. For the users of the
game's
PC-version
there
currently is a new system to be
tested: With the increasing
availability of smartphones
with movement detection, it is
proposed to use these systems
as external controllers for the
PC.
n connection with the use of
smartphones as a controller
you will also be able to use an
app
to
manage
your
character's
inventory
or
conduct trade while you are on
the move. In this way your
character shall be integrated in
your everyday live. This idea
was
inspired
by
the
Tamagotchis of the late '90s.
Concept Art
ast but not least the game
integrates some of the highly
praised modding capabilities of
the late Elder Scrolls and
Fallout games. How can you
modify an online game?
ZeniMax found an answer to
this problem. Every player can
create his or her own
dungeons and upload them to
a central server. The so
published dungeons can be
tested by every player of the
game in some sort of sandbox
mode. After the test the
dungeon is rated. Dungeons
with high enough ratings will
be included in the game world.
Naturally
this
modding
capability does not extend to
new models or the like
because console players would
not be able to download and
install new files on their
systems.
ollowing this quick tour of
some of these more technical
features we will take a look at
the promised gameplay. One
of the greatest features of the
Elder Scrolls series is said to be
the completely open world.
TES: Online will continue this
trend and take it to a new
level. The game will completely
run in real time. One minute in
the game time lasts one
minute. In other games the
character will run and fight for
days without pause. In TES:
Online characters in the game
will have a complete diurnal
cycle. In consequence your
character will loose his
endurance, strength and so on
when he stays awake for too
long till he or she collapses.
This idea will not only help the
player to identify with his or
her character even more, but
will also prevent players from
playing several days without
pause
which
ZeniMax
acknowledges as a problem for
some players.
ne thing that was not yet
disclosed is the place in
Tamriel, the game world of
Elder Scrolls, where the
MMOG will play. But we were
assured that the game will take
the player to a previously
unvisited part of the continent.
Also the size of the world shall
be more comparable to
Daggerfall than to Oblivion.
Being said that Daggerfall
probably had the biggest game
world ever this is a tough
goal.
nline games have been
increasingly
successful
in
recent years and it is not
surprising that ZeniMax also
wants to take its share. Many
fans of the single player games
will likely be worried for the
future of the single player
games. Matt Firor, president of
ZeniMax
Online
Studios
assures that these concerns
are unfounded. The Bethesda
Game Studios will continue to
develop all future single player
games
of
the
series.
ate this year or in the
beginning of 2012 we will see a
closed beta. Speculations are
that pre orders of The Elder
Scrolls: Skyrim will come with a
code for this beta. The release
date will be in late 2012. We
take bets on the date
12/12/12. [kf]
Skyrim (2011)
(2011)(2011)(2011
)
What is The Elder Scrolls?
The Elder Scrolls is an award winning
RPG video game series of Bethesda
Softworks. The series started with
Arena (1994) and Daggerfall (1996).
After some adventure titles in the same
universe the third part of the main
series, Morrowind (2002), attracted a
wide field of players with a detailed
none randomly generated game world.
In 2006 the series reached its greatest
success to date with Oblivion, one of
the highest rated role-playing games
ever.
In 2011 and 2012 the series will be
continued with Skyrim and TES: Online
respectively.
Oblivion (2006
Morrowind (2002)
(2011)(2011)(201
1)
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